A new model for calculating the effective viscosity of nanofluids

Abstract

In this paper a new equation for calculating the nanofluid viscosity by considering the Brownian motion of nanoparticles is introduced. The relative velocity between the base fluid and nanoparticles has been taken into account. This equation presents the nanofluid viscosity as a function of the temperature, the mean nanoparticle diameter, the nanoparticle volume fraction, the nanoparticle density and the base fluid physical properties. In developing the model a correction factor is introduced to take into account the simplification that was applied on the boundary condition. It is calculated by using very limited experimental data for nanofluids consisting of 13 nm Al2O3 nanoparticles and water and 28 nm Al2O3 nanoparticles and water. The predicted results are then compared with many other published experimental results for different nanofluids and very good concordance between these results is observed. Compared with the other theoretical models that are available in the literature, the presented model, in general, has a higher accuracy and precision.